It is mandatory to have a car insurance in India and thankfully so. Majority Indians are not insured or under-insured. Did you know that India has one of the highest number of road accidents in the world! By definition ‘accident’ means no one is to blame and it was just a mishap. But we all know that accidents are caused by rash and negligent driving and therefore the law requires that the wrongdoer must compensate the victim for the loss suffered.
Separate forums called Motor Accidents Claims Tribunals (MACT) have been set up under Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 to claim for compensation involving motor accidents as in India we have separate unit for dealing and claiming compensation.
If the accident arising from the use of motor vehicle involves death or bodily injury or damage to property of any person, then a claim for road accident compensation can be made before the Claims Tribunal.
Claiming compensation for road accident
- An application claiming road accident compensation has to be made by the person who has sustained the injury or by the owner of the property which suffered damage or by the legal representative of the deceased or by an agent duly authorized by the injured person.
- The application has to be made before the Claims Tribunal and no civil court has the power to entertain any question relating to any claim for compensation.
- The claimant has to prove rash and negligent driving on the part of the respondent in order to be entitled for compensation.
Examples of negligent driving where road accident compensation has been granted:
- Overtaking without waiting for signal to overtake from the vehicle in front.
- Infraction of traffic rules (not giving precedence to traffic moving uphill, not keeping to the proper side.
- Over speeding.
- Negotiating curve without proper care (at high speed and on wrong side).
Striking the vehicle from behind.
If the victim was also negligent along with the respondent, then it becomes a case of contributory negligence where the Tribunal will reduce the road accident compensation to such an extent as it seems just and equitable to it having regard to the “claim shared in the responsibility for the damages”. Thus where a passenger in a bus was keeping his hand outside the window and the hand got injured because of the negligence of the driver the compensation entitled to the passenger will be reduced because the injury would not have occurred had he been careful in not putting his hands outside.
An application can be made to the tribunal under whose jurisdiction the claimant resides or carries on business or under whose jurisdiction the respondent resides or under whose jurisdiction the accident occurred. For example, where an accident occurs in Kolkata between a person residing in Mumbai and a person residing in Chennai, an application can be made before the claims tribunal in Kolkata, or Mumbai or Chennai.
As soon as information regarding an accident involving death or bodily injury is reported to the police station, the police officer is required to forward such report to the Claims Tribunal within 30 days and the Claims Tribunal considers such report as an application for compensation.
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